The Aussie singer-songwriter’s solo debut is decorously downcast, a tapestry of saddish songs composed of soft rock, alt-country, and lyrical loneliness. For fans of gifted troubadours like Kathleen Edwards, that sounds inviting, but in Nicholson’s case, it’s kinda dull – his resignation-filled voice has a flattening effect. Coproducer Nash Chambers (brother of Down Under folkie Kasey Chambers, who cameos) should have given the dreary dreamer more of the bright stuff, like the lilting ”The Best Day of the Year.”